Hacking iPhones

[dirtylilhobo]

This sounds like uneducated FUD from someone who doesn't understand how these things work. Like the kind of people who blame all their computer issues on "viruses".

Sounds like the response expected from the uneducated. Be enlightened:


Initial Hack
If your Apple iPhone is on the verge of being hacked, you will receive a single text message -- known as a SMS -- or a series of text messages. The message will only display a single square character. This is a similar trick used by hackers to corrupt a computer by sending you an email through your email account. However, unlike a computer hack that requires you to open the email and click on a link, an iPhone hack only requires you to receive the text message. Once the message is sent, the hack has begun.

Signs
If your iPhone has been hacked, the warning signs will become apparent. For starters, hackers can make calls remotely using your phone, altering your call history. The camera within the phone will turn on by itself. Text messages can be sent from your iPhone to those in your address book. In short, all functions of the iPhone can be controlled by the hacker, allowing them to steal and use any personal data you might have stored on it.

Protection
Ways to protect yourself against an iPhone hack exist, although no method is full proof. For starters, if you receive the square character as a text message, turn your phone off. Do not hesitate in doing this. Once the phone is turned off, hackers cannot penetrate it. For similar reasons, keep your iPhone off when it's not is use. Outside of preventing a hack, this will also save you battery life. If you fear personal information -- such as credit card numbers -- have been stolen from your iPhone, cancel your cards. Once an iPhone has been hacked, it can be used to hack other iPhones by sending the square character through text messages. Ask your friends if they have received such a message from your phone and, if they have, inform them that their phone might be hacked.

Discovery
In June 2009, security researcher Charlie Miller discovered that the Apple iPhone had the ability to be hacked using the methods mentioned above. A month later, he and fellow researcher Collin Mulliner revealed the news at the Black Hat Cyber Security Conference in Las Vegas. Dai Zovi, who co-authored the book "The Mac Hacker's Handbook," states that Apple products such as the iPhone run the risk of becoming more vulnerable to hackers and may one day be as vulnerable as Windows-based machines.

 

[C DM]

Sounds like the response expected from the uneducated. Be enlightened:


Initial Hack
If your Apple iPhone is on the verge of being hacked, you will receive a single text message -- known as a SMS -- or a series of text messages. The message will only display a single square character. This is a similar trick used by hackers to corrupt a computer by sending you an email through your email account. However, unlike a computer hack that requires you to open the email and click on a link, an iPhone hack only requires you to receive the text message. Once the message is sent, the hack has begun.

Signs
If your iPhone has been hacked, the warning signs will become apparent. For starters, hackers can make calls remotely using your phone, altering your call history. The camera within the phone will turn on by itself. Text messages can be sent from your iPhone to those in your address book. In short, all functions of the iPhone can be controlled by the hacker, allowing them to steal and use any personal data you might have stored on it.

Protection
Ways to protect yourself against an iPhone hack exist, although no method is full proof. For starters, if you receive the square character as a text message, turn your phone off. Do not hesitate in doing this. Once the phone is turned off, hackers cannot penetrate it. For similar reasons, keep your iPhone off when it's not is use. Outside of preventing a hack, this will also save you battery life. If you fear personal information -- such as credit card numbers -- have been stolen from your iPhone, cancel your cards. Once an iPhone has been hacked, it can be used to hack other iPhones by sending the square character through text messages. Ask your friends if they have received such a message from your phone and, if they have, inform them that their phone might be hacked.

Discovery
In June 2009, security researcher Charlie Miller discovered that the Apple iPhone had the ability to be hacked using the methods mentioned above. A month later, he and fellow researcher Collin Mulliner revealed the news at the Black Hat Cyber Security Conference in Las Vegas. Dai Zovi, who co-authored the book "The Mac Hacker's Handbook," states that Apple products such as the iPhone run the risk of becoming more vulnerable to hackers and may one day be as vulnerable as Windows-based machines.

So at best this was related to some exploit in an old iPhone and/or old iOS version 5 years ago. Where's any real evidence of any actual exploits existing in iPhones and iOS versions that are currently out, let alone actual exploits that are being used to hack phones? There's jailbreaking of course, which can allow for things of this nature, but that basically requires the user to install something themselves to open up the door for something like that to potentially come through.

 

[deeddawg]

So at best this was related to some exploit in an old iPhone and/or old iOS version 5 years ago.

Yep, June 2009 would have been iOS 2.x or 3.x depending on which side of the 3GS release it was on. We're now at iOS version 8.1 Not much chance of a five year old exploit still hanging around.

Sorry dirtylilhobo, but until you can come up with some real proof and/or believable citations, save the Halloween ghost stories for the technologically illiterate.

 

[ian-frs]

Yep, June 2009 would have been iOS 2.x or 3.x depending on which side of the 3GS release it was on. We're now at iOS version 8.1 Not much chance of a five year old exploit still hanging around.

If I remember correctly that was used as an old method for jailbreaking and has been closed for a very very long time.

 

[bakron1]

Yep when I hear stuff about Android and IOS phones been hacked every day and about all the hacks at major retailers.

That's why I am starting to pay in cash and use my BlackBerry for my primary phone again.

 

[C DM]

Yep when I hear stuff about Android and IOS phones been hacked every day and about all the hacks at major retailers.

That's why I am starting to pay in cash and use my BlackBerry for my primary phone again.

Because a BlackBerry can't be hacked compared to iPhone, for example?

 

[Eau Rouge]

Because a BlackBerry can't be hacked compared to iPhone, for example?

Probably not worth the development effort to potentially compromise all 9 of the remaining users.